A key legislative committee rejected legalizing recreational marijuana by an 11 to 6 vote Tuesday. The vote by the general law committee was considered the best chance for a legal marijuana bill to make it out of a legislative committee for consideration by the General Assembly.

A key legislative committee rejected legalizing recreational marijuana by an 11 to 6 vote Tuesday, with Republicans and Democrats joining to defeat the measure.

The vote by the general law committee was considered the best chance for a legal marijuana bill to make it out of a legislative committee for consideration by the General Assembly.

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The general law committee was deeply split with strong remarks on both sides for and against recreational marijuana before the measure was defeated.

The vote was a setback to advocates because the bill had been purposely steered to the general law committee this year in a change of strategy as the House co-chairman, Rep. Michael D’Agostino, was an advocate for legalization. The other two co-chairs, Sen. Carlo Leone of Stamford and Sen. Kevin Witkos of Canton, also voted in favor. But most of the rest of the committee ignored the views of the three co-chairmen and rejected the bill.

No Connecticut legislative committee has ever voted in favor of legalization, and the matter has failed during the past two years without any formal votes.

Leone, a Stamford Democrat, said the process is a long way from over because four different committees are considering various aspects of marijuana legalization. The general law committee focused only on certain aspects of the bill, including that it would allow the growing of six plants per individual and 12 plants per household.

“We did not try to tackle the legality of it,’’ Leone told fellow committee members. “We did not try to tackle the morality of it. … There’s still a ways to go.’’

But Leone told committee members that Connecticut should take action now because Massachusetts voters approved legalization of marijuana and the product is expected to be legally available there later this year.

“If we don’t confront it here and now, we will be confronting it down the road,’’ Leone said.

After the vote, Leone said that he had not expected the measure to pass.

But Sen. John Kissel, an Enfield Republican, said the state consumer protection department would need two years to develop regulations and would need to hire as many as 30 to 60 new employees to regulate marijuana. He said that it would be difficult to regulate under a bill that would have allowed 12 plants per household.

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“It’s going to be the Wild West,’’ Kissel said before voting against the proposal.

Deputy Senate Republican leader Kevin Witkos, a former police officer in Canton, surprised some lawmakers by being in favor of the narrow bill, adding that he might vote later against marijuana legalization on the Senate floor.

"There's still a lot of issues that are on the legislators minds, so I didn't expect it to pass," Leone said. "I think the bill, as was mentioned, still has a long way to go but this gives us the opportunity to think for when that time comes, whether it's now, or some time in the future or far off in the future. At some point, we need to have a framework."

Before the vote, committee members said they disapproved of the process in which the legislation was brought up this session. Four committees took on different portions and some committee members argued it made the process frustrating.

Gibson, like Witkos, voted yes at the committee level but reserved the right to vote against the overall measure in the coming weeks.

“I know that it would bring more money to the state of Connecticut, but is this what we need to rely on?” Gibson asked. “I think there’s more discussion that needs to be had because there is some positives to this but there’s a lot, a lot of negatives.”

Deputy House Republican leader Vincent Candelora of North Branford said he disagreed with the decision to divide the marijuana bill into four separate areas.

“I have a problem with the way this year this whole structure has been done and the way we’re dealing with it,” Candelora said. “Rather than dealing with one bill, we have four committees raising bills in silos and dealing with issues separately. … If we’re true to form last year, the judiciary committee may not even have a vote, like they did last year. The public health committee didn’t even vote to draft a bill last year.”

He added, “In the future, we should have one public hearing, one vehicle and have that vehicle go around committee to committee so that it could address all the issues.’’

The legislature has already held two public hearings on marijuana, and the appropriations committee is scheduled to hold another hearing March 28.